It’s really not nice to make fun of small flash modifiers, but it’s so very inviting because SOME OF THEM LOOK PRETTY DARN GOOFY. In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re in the middle of, “The Light Modifier Craze"...

“28. You experiment with at least three different types of material to bounce light from your flash. At least two of them are hand-made.”

I once was really excited about a bounce card for my Nikon SB-24 that I made from the back of a plastic dishwashing soap bottle. It had a natural curve and everything! I quickly stopped using it when some executive looked at my bounce card on a shoot and said it looked just like…a soap bottle. (He just didn’t understand).

The third experiment was likely a bounce gadget you bought at midnight from B&H Photo, or in a fit of flash frustration, desperately thinking it would be the answer to raccoon shadows at picnics or the shiny forehead of that fashion event co-chair.

When the light attachment was delivered, the honeymoon was cut short by the awful surprise that the attachment didn’t create a light similar to a 6-foot soft box, or a 45” beauty dish.

What?! It was supposed to turn your frog flash into princely light!

And then off we go to buy another flash modifier.

So what used to be backyard fun is now big business. It kind of reminds me of mousetraps. Everyone wants to build a better mousetrap. Every time you go to a hardware store you find a new kind of mousetrap that “STOPS THEM DEAD!” And they are clever. But then you bring it home and watch as the mouse saunters in and out of it like a teenager at a convenience store.

What is going on?

First, a caveat. I know there are those who feel passionate about lighting attachments – so much that you may willingly advertise the name of the company at whatever event you shoot (attention Gary Fong adherents).

But let me just suggest 5 thoughts on light theory and practical considerations as you shop for the Next Great Light Attachment Thingy.

1. Putting something white and soft on top of your flash will not make your light any more soft. Perceived “softness of light” comes down to the “family of angles” coming at your subject. The more angles, the more soft the light.

Even if you have some magic material to use as a bounce or a shoot-through medium, if the light hitting your subject is coming from a 3x5 inch space from eight feet away, it doesn’t matter what the material is. Even a soft box can be as harsh as direct flash if it’s far enough from the subject.

2. If you buy a light that bounces light in every direction to diffuse the light, that’s great – if you have a ceiling or walls around you. If you don’t, like at a picnic or parade, the only light reaching your subject is bouncing from the 3x5 inch gadget from the top of your flash. Again, it’s still a pinpoint with little meaningful modification among gadgets.

3. Some flash attachments throw off light in so many directions, and suppress the power of the flash so significantly, that they have the net effect of wasting a lot of battery power. Thus, you will find yourself waiting a long time for your flash to recharge, having to replace the batteries much more often, or experiencing flash overheating (and possible meltdown) at the worst possible moment (see Murphy’s Law).

4. Not all flash attachments are durable or workable. The more they jut into the sky, the more they will jut into the ribs at a crowded event unless you hold them in front and on high like an Oscar statue. Some attachments are not built to be jostled, or even made to be durable. They’re plastic, right?

5. The most ambitious flash attachments are often bulkier as they seek to compete with their bigger cousins in the artificial light family. But two things can happen with more bulk. One effect is that the TTL sensors are more easily blocked. The other is that the size of the modifier puts so much pressure on the hot shoe that it can either break the hot shoe on the camera or the attachment on the foot of the flash. I’ve had this happen before.

This is all not to say that light modifiers for flashes don’t work as intended. They can and do, under the right conditions. But they’re not a cure-all for the limitations of a small pinpoint light that brings harsh shadows. Of course, harsh light has made the careers of many fashion photographers, so bad light isn’t even bad light anymore.

In the end, I’m probably not immune from the lighting attachment craze.

If someone bought a light-attachment-mouse-trap, I might even give it a whirl (but only if it doesn’t look too goofy).

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